Joint Assessment & self-employed losses

A friend who was recently made redundant has set up as a self-employed person. With all the set up costs and running expenses and the fact that income is going to be low for a while until he gets his business fully off the ground, it is likely he will be looking at a loss for the first year or more.
His wife is working (PAYE) and she also has some other non-PAYE (farm) income.
Can the losses from his business be used each year to claim back some of the PAYE income paid by his wife?
I have a suspicion that a loss cant be used by a spouse in this way but I'm not sure and I can't dig out anything from the Revenue website.

If they are jointly assessed then self-assessed losses may, when set against other reckonable income, produce an overpayment. Generally trading losses may be set against other income for the same year of assessment or if not fully relieved there can be carried forward against future profits from that source. See Sections 381-390 Taxes COnsolidation Act 1997.

Thanks for that Graham_07,

I wasn't sure that a loss generated by the husbands self-employed activity could be used against his wifes PAYE income